wheel gun mods- yes or no?

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71buickfreak

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I have recently acquired a cheapo Rossi M68 3" barrel revolver and I am pondering some custom mods, just because I don't have much in it and they would make it easier to conceal. I am wondering if it would be possible to shave the barrel about an inch and bob the hammer spur. The bobing thing is pretty easy, I could do that, but shortnening the barrel would require a new front sight and a few other items that I don't feel comfortable doing. I have already ordered new grips for it, but I want to make it a little shorter. The gun isn't worth much, so modding it won't affect the value. I don't expect to ever shoot it SA, its a CC gun, I don't want to risk the spur catching on anything.

Ideas, thoughts?
 

71buickfreak

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Yeah, I thought about that too. I can bob the hammer myself, that's free. I need to cycle the action a few rounds, as I ahve heard some of these don't fire all the shots in DA. It may get left alone and just kept as a truck gun.
 

Simon

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I have recently acquired a cheapo Rossi M68 3" barrel revolver and I am pondering some custom mods, just because I don't have much in it and they would make it easier to conceal. I am wondering if it would be possible to shave the barrel about an inch and bob the hammer spur. The bobing thing is pretty easy, I could do that, but shortnening the barrel would require a new front sight and a few other items that I don't feel comfortable doing. I have already ordered new grips for it, but I want to make it a little shorter. The gun isn't worth much, so modding it won't affect the value. I don't expect to ever shoot it SA, its a CC gun, I don't want to risk the spur catching on anything.

Ideas, thoughts?
A 3"barrel on a revolver is not any more difficult to conceal than a 2". The butt is much more difficult to conceal. If you bob the hammer, you should remove the single action notch from the hammer and smooth the action. If the gun proves reliable you might have a good carry gun, but I would test it thoroughly before I would trust it, just like any other brand.
 

flatwins

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One thing worth considering is that even though the Rossi might not be a valuable revolver, it will never be worth as much as it is at present. Any mods to it will not only cost but will also bring the value down.

If you know that going in and are ok with it, do what you will.
 

Buzzdraw

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Remember that by bobbing the hammer spur, you've lost some mass off the part of the gun that "lights" the primer. Possibly you won't lose 100% reliable ignition.

I'm a fan of the 642/442/early 640's for the reason already mentioned. The hammer is fully covered and cannot be snagged by debris of any kind. Another advantage of this particular family of revolvers is that you can get a really high grip, for better control.
 

Shadowrider

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Remember that by bobbing the hammer spur, you've lost some mass off the part of the gun that "lights" the primer. Possibly you won't lose 100% reliable ignition.

I'm a fan of the 642/442/early 640's for the reason already mentioned. The hammer is fully covered and cannot be snagged by debris of any kind. Another advantage of this particular family of revolvers is that you can get a really high grip, for better control.
Buzz it actually helps with ignition. The hammer flies faster. That's the only way we can get a S&W down to around 5.5lbs and still light Federal primers. Other primers require a bit more than that say 7.5 to 8lbs. All my competition guns have almost 50% of the hammer weight whacked off. Note: this only applies to centerfire guns. Rimfire is a whole nuther matter.

Whack away on that hammer and don't worry about removing the SA notch. Just don't ever try to use it tho...
 

Buzzdraw

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Buzz it actually helps with ignition. The hammer flies faster. That's the only way we can get a S&W down to around 5.5lbs and still light Federal primers. Other primers require a bit more than that say 7.5 to 8lbs. All my competition guns have almost 50% of the hammer weight whacked off. Note: this only applies to centerfire guns. Rimfire is a whole nuther matter.

Whack away on that hammer and don't worry about removing the SA notch. Just don't ever try to use it tho...

Revolvers look cooler with the spur removed. For a defensive carry gun, it may even be a good idea.

My competition centerfire K-frames run just at 5# DA on my Lyman electronic pull gauge and have the spur on them. They are 100% dependable with Federal primers, not with Winchesters. It's rare that I might want to use the spur to cock and shoot SA, but someday I might.

The safety caution about not trying to use the SA feature on a revolver that's been de-spurred is important. I've seen them go off when the user was attempting to cock by using the DA feature, then trying to snag the hammer to pull back to full SA.
 

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